A&F Quarterly, the magazine/catalog
from Abercrombie & Fitch, closed its doors on Dec. 9 after its Christmas
issue enraged the National Coalition of the Protection of Children and
Families. Parents all over America cheered -- their kids were safe from
the dirty, dirty pictures. For this was not the first time the quarterly
magazine faced scrutiny from special interest groups. Dozens of family
oriented coalitions, M.A.D.D., and Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs
have pilloried Abercrombie & Fitch through the years for the highly
suggestive (read: nekkid) images in its ad campaigns and quarterly magazines.

The editor in charge of the A&F Quarterly was Savas Abadsidis.
(It's pronounced "A-bad-seed-is." Yes, really.) Abadsidis spent
8 years with A&F starting out as a wee assistant to creative director
Sam Shahid. And now that's all over.

Since the shutdown, Abasidis has been trying to regroup and start a new
publication. The exact details about his new publication are still in
the works, but he said it will embody the "voice and spirit"
of A&F Quarterly, but not the clothing. In his first full-length
interview since his dismissal from A&F, Abadsidis went commando and
agreed to participate in the journalistic shish-kebab that is Rock and
a Hard Place. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Savas from evil.

BT: So, two months ago I'm looking through the A&F Quarterly
for a Christmas present for my 12-year-old niece -- a nice little hat
or one of those long-sleeve t-shirts -- and before I can even get to the
clothes section I have to sift through a bunch of half-nude boys making
out with someone wearing a moose costume. Honestly, Savas. What the HELL
is wrong with you?

SA: Our market was college age students 18-to-22 and younger-ish
people in their early-to-mid 20s. The image was just s'posed to be fun
and adventurous. I think that our generation has been exposed to so much
overkill in terms of porn, profanity and violence and I like to think
that we did something that was suggestive, but not pornographic and healthy
and not violent. I think we portrayed a real sexual egalitarianism in
the images... we also tried to be aspirational, intelligent and irreverent
in our editorial and the copy we ran with the pictures. My favorite was
the last back-to-school issue where we had Slavoj Zizek, the Slovenian
psychoanalytical Marxist philosopher, write commentary over the Bruce
Weber images.

BT: Did you just namedrop Slavoj Zizek? I thought so Anyway,
did you get canned because of the controversy surrounding these pics?
What was that meeting like?

SA: There was no meeting. I mean it sucked. The circumstances
at the end were ridiculous. There was an awful lot of pressure from a
number of conservative Christian groups who routinely attacked members
of the board of directors, the CEO and the Creative Director... culminating
in a series of ads that ran in USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.
Eventually, you know, I guess it got to be too much.

You know, personally, this was an outgrowth of my first job, so it really
sucked, it was like my home you know? It was the greatest job on Earth,
I learned a ton and hopefully I can keep the momentum.

BT: Did you try to model A&F Quarterly after any magazine?
Playboy? Maxim? Details?

SA: Early Playboy and Esquire during the 50s under Arnold Gingrich.
Probably the greatest editor of a men's magazine ever. I'm also a huge
fan of David Remnick and Graydon Carter. With a dash of Field and Stream,
albeit with nude coeds frolicking in said stream and/or field.

BT: Do you think Abercrombie & Fitch has cool clothes? Do
you wear them? Do you think A&F Quarterly has single-handedly given
the world a newer, younger, more suburban generation of sluts?

SA: I sure hope so. And I am addicted to their cargo pants...
I have so much stuff that I take with me everywhere I can't wear anything
else. What other pants let you carry a notepad, pen, wallet, cellphone,
Gameboy, checkbook and who knows what else?

BT: Do you think you did anything wrong? Do you look back at the
magazine now and say "Hey, I did everything I wanted to do here..."
or do you say "Hey, maybe a simulated orgy by a campfire isn't the
best way to sell cargo pants to teenagers?"

SA: No. The fact of the matter is there were no simulated orgies.
I think the pics were really sexy, fun and healthy images. The worst thing
we did was make boys feel insecure about their bodies and it should have
been more diverse but I had no control over that aspect. I wish we had
a chance to print the spring break issue. It was really awesome. We shot
the whole thing in Rome.

BT: Let's see. A&F Quarterly, plus Spring Break Issue, plus
Rome -- I'm picturing a naked Italian kid with his private parts covered
in marinara doing a body shot off the Pope. The National Coalition for
the Protection of Children and Families started a "Stop A&F"
campaign a couple years ago. They seem like a feisty bunch. What's the
worse piece of propaganda/hatemail/death threat that you received from
that crew?

SA: We received numerous phone calls accusing us of being a bunch
of "queer faggot hustlers who ought to be ashamed of ourselves...."
to which I replied "wow that was better than Ms.Cleo."

I thought the controversy was overblown and ridiculous... and I think
most people did... when my grandmother , who's completely old-fashioned
religious and conservative, thinks it was overblown... I mean what do
you say?!

BT: Hmm. I don't know. Take your pants off grandma? How about
NAMBLA? I'm sure they were big fans. Ever communicate with NAMBLA? You're
not a member are you...?

SA: I've been late on my dues...so no. It's very exclusive.

BT: Would you rather join NAMBLA or participate in a campfire
orgy with three dudes wearing Structure turtlenecks?

SA: NAMBLA. Structure, ecch!

BT: Well, what was the goal of A&F Quarterly? Was it to sell
clothes? Or were you really trying to make the magazine a culture of its
own?

SA: A little bit of both. A wise man named David Keeps once complimented
the Quarterly as being corporate sponsored subversiveness. Of course the
goal was to sell clothes, but it was more than that... I think we really
tried to tap the rebellious spirit of being young and on fire... excited
by life and pedantically selling clothes to such a fickle market like
college students would never work in a traditional way.

BT: Did you feel like you had any allies in the media during the
controversy? Was it tough to get people to listen to your reasoning behind
the quarterly without them being judgmental? You know, like, was it tough
to convince people you weren't corrupting children?

SA: I did have some allies. Most of my friends who worked in the
media and/or Hollywood were amazed at the amount of controversy. They
also reiterated that it was becoming more and more pervasive. Look at
a company like Wal-Mart, which controls some obscene percentage of the
magazine racks in America and essentially owns and edits virtually every
magazine. I dunno. I find that disturbing. I also think people are a lot
more (and kids too) sophisticated than people realize. I don't want these
people telling me or, more accurately, precluding me, from seeing what
they don't want me to see.

And the only children I have managed to corrupt are the few I've dated.